


I Grew Up in a Library

by Addfire



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: New Dangan Ronpa V3 Spoilers, This is a literal fucking essay i wrote for my english class, but keep in mind this is definitely an essay, im putting this in the few appropriate tags i can think of because i want people to read this, this essay does spoil all of v3 ch6 so. dont read if you arent caught up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 15:20:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21340378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Addfire/pseuds/Addfire
Summary: I wrote an essay on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Danganronpa v3, neurodivergency, and obsession.If at least one person reads this I'll be happy.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	I Grew Up in a Library

Obsession ruins lives. When a person is obsessed with some illicit substance, even when they know they’ll be hurt, it’s called addiction. Alcohol, or drugs, or cigarettes– people are even beginning to find themselves obsessed with cell phones or computers. The detrimental effects of obsession are clear, but when thinking of obsession, a question arises: where is the harm in obsession with a story? Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his speech “The American Scholar,” discusses this question at length. At its best, Emerson says, a story is transformative, like an alchemist hunched over beakers and bottles. An author takes life experiences and attempts to form them into some greater truth. In the pursuit of this Philosopher’s Stone of literature, however, Emerson sees that obsession. Once such an impressive story has been created, Emerson warns that its readers will become so enraptured by the story’s contents that they allow the book to consume them, leading to one of his most powerful quotes: “I had better never see a book, than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system." He warns against the power this obsession has over a person. Is Emerson justified in his fears? No. Emerson’s fear of obsession, while well-intentioned, is misinformed and harmful. 

How does obsession affect someone? One potential answer to this is found in an unconventional place. The Japanese video game series and psychological drama Danganronpa, created by Kazutaka Kodaka, released in 2017 its most recent game. Each game in the series follows a unique set of characters forced to kill each other, and Danganronpa ends each of its games with a twist that upends the fictional world it takes place in. The most recent game, Danganronpa v3, had a twist that followed this unwritten rule with flair. The final chapter of the game presents a world where every person in it is so obsessed with Danganronpa that what was originally just a video game is now a reality TV show in its 53rd season, cast using people who voluntarily participate. Of course, if every participant was willing, there’d be no tension before the killing began, so the showrunners create a novel solution: they mindwipe every willing participant, and give them an entirely new identity. As the game phrases it, every character is fictional. The protagonist of the series, Shuichi Saihara, has a breakdown upon realising that he isn’t real, that he was invented for the purpose of giving an outside audience some entertainment. Saihara hears a version of himself from before the mindwipe declare, “I'd do anything to be a part of Danganronpa. I promise, if I get selected... I will work as hard as I can! I will come up with the best, most gruesome murders, I promise!” Saihara hears a version of himself insane with obsession, and it crushes him. At this point in the game, you’re met with a game over screen, and you are temporarily unable to play. All music goes quiet. During the final chapter of Danganronpa v3, a game that can be bizarre, quick-paced, and electrifying, players find this sober, horrifying, and quiet moment. That moment is reached by the protagonist understanding the depths of obsession.

Danganronpa is something I’m usually thinking about. I found each game’s story and characters fascinating, to the point where I’m always thinking about a handful of characters and moments from various games in the series. Danganronpa is something I’m obsessed with. I could also say that Danganronpa is a special interest of mine. According to Chloe Jennifer Jordan and Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris, members of Boston University’s Department of Psychology, “special interests are frequently developed by individuals with autism spectrum disorder, expressed as an intense focus on specific topics." As a person with a special interest, special interests aren’t something a person can control. They’re things that a person never stops thinking about, and they can last anywhere from weeks to years. For a person who has special interests, it’s as if any piece of media will either make a satellite of my system, or I will find it impossible to focus on. When someone mentions their dislike of a special interest of mine, it feels like a personal attack. Always being obsessed with some irrelevant media is frustrating and distracting, especially when I should be focusing on other work. When reading Emerson’s comments about the “young men [who] grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon have given,” I almost felt offended. I was and still am that young person growing up in a library, believing it my duty to accept the views that Kodaka has given. 

Special interests aren’t entirely negative, however. In fact, they are often positive. As most neurodivergent people are, I’m able to look back at special interests of mine and almost immediately draw from them the ability to create. I’m able to more effectively understand certain topics– one special interest of mine employs elements of gnostic imagery, and wanting to know more, I read the entire wikipedia page on gnosticism. Beyond providing creative and intellectual stimulation, what Emerson would call my obsessions have even led me to become more physically active. When listening to podcasts, I need to do something with the rest of my body, so I’ve taken to walking through my neighborhood. Before I began regularly listening to podcasts, I never ventured outside my house. Emerson is worried that obsession with books makes people “stop with some past utterance of genius. […] They pin [one] down. They look backward and not forward." After finishing Danganronpa v3, my thoughts began racing in terms of its implications. Immediately, I started to write. Without the game, I would have been unable to move forwards. Without that story, I would be pinned down. 

Danganronpa v3’s twist reveals that every character was fabricated by its showrunners, and the surviving characters have to confront within themselves the existential horror of not being real. Once that reality starts to sink in, the protagonist, Shuichi Saihara, is so overcome with despair that the game stops. The screen goes black, and then text appears, reading “Bad End.” During the final chapter of Danganronpa v3, a game that can be bizarre, quick-paced, and electrifying, players find this sober, horrifying, and quiet moment. And then the game starts again. The player is prompted to “remedy the situation.” The game continues, and the player is suddenly in the perspective of a different character, who comforts Saihara. Saihara has a realization, that even if he was fictional, his experiences were real. Even if he was created on a lie, “if [a lie] has the power to change the world, then it must contain some kind of truth." At the start of his fictional time in a fictional location, the fictional Saihara suffered from very real fears of inadequacy and bouts of depression. As fictional time passed in a fictional world, Saihara was able to really move past those fears. The showrunners are crazed with obsession, but without that obsession Saihara would never have been able to be genuinely happy– in fact, he would not exist in the first place to have the opportunity to be happy. 

As ugly a word as obsession is, obsession is good. Obsessions get people through creative droughts, intellectual boredom, and even let people find happiness. Walt Whitman, an incredible creative force, was arguably obsessed with Emerson’s ideas. Through that obsession, Whitman wrote what is considered one of the greatest American masterpieces. Emerson’s reaction to obsession is simplistic, almost a knee-jerk reaction. But that reaction is one seen frequently today. There’s an idea out there that obsession ruins lives. It’s not uncommon for neurodivergent people to hide their special interests, out of fear that they’ll be made fun of or shunned for being weird and obsessive. I am obsessive, though. And obsession has helped me write this essay. Alchemists may have never realized their obsession with transforming lead into gold. They did, however, revolutionize the world of science along the way.


End file.
